Door.



aan spares Parana onirica@ FREDERICK KEES, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO S. M.

COLBURN, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

DOOR.

Specification of Letters latentn Patented dan. s, i918.

Application ledpecember 6, 1916. Serial No. 135,369.

lo all fwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK KEES, a citizen of the United States, resident of Minneapolis, county of Hennepin, State of lVlinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Doors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to vertically sliding doors capable of a variety of uses and particularly adapted for garages and similar structures.

The object of my invention is to provide a door which can be raised or opened by a force applied vertically only to the lower part of the door, and closed by a similar force applied downwardly to the lower part of the door.

A further object of the invention is to provide a door which can be easily and quickly raised to expose the door opening and when closed will fit snugly against the frame and form a weatherpr0of joint therewith.

The invention consists generally in various constructions and combinations, all as hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a building having a door opening, with a door embodying my invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view, showing the track in which the door is mounted on each side of the opening,

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line mof Fig. 1.'

In the drawing, 2 represents the wall of a building, 3 the ceiling thereof and 4 a door opening. 5 is a door of any suitable construction, having anti-friction rollers 6 mounted on the vertical edges thereof. This type of door is usually known in the trade as a trolley door, and generally a door of this kind requires two motions or movements to open or close it. It first has to be pulled in at the top to get it of the dead center and then raised by a vertical movement. With my invention the movement of pulling the door in at the top preliminary to raising it is eliminated entirely. When a door of this type is closed, it must be pushed outwardly and seated against the door frame; while in my improvement the one downward movement will not only close the door but will also seat it to exclude cold air or snow or rain.

In carrying out my invention, I prefer to provide vertical guide rails, preferably of channel bar construction upon each side of the door opening and extending to the top of the opening, and above these vertical sections I provide upwardly and inwardly curved sections 8 which extend to a point near the ceiling and in a substantially horizontal direction thereunder. The lower ends of the rails 7 have cam-surfaces 9 which engage with the anti-friction rollers at the bottom of the door when it is lowered to its closed position. The upper ends of the guide rails 7 are o'set from the rails 8, as indicated plainly in Fig. 2, and the rails 8 have cam surfaces 10 which are inclined toward the frame of the door and form guide-ways for the upper anti-friction rollers of the door and serve to direct the upper end of the door against the weatherstrip 11 that is secured to the door casing. The lower end of the door will slide in the vertical guide-ways until it reaches a point near the bottom of the door opening, where the lower sections of the guide-ways are outwardly turned toward the sides of the door frame. At this point the inner walls of the channel bars will engage the anti-friction rollers and gradually direct the door outwardly to its seat with a wedging effect, which will hold the door securely in its closed position. The joint between the door frame and the door will thereby be closed and cold air, snow or rain will be entirely excluded from the building.

The operation of raising the door will be a vertical lifting movement only, the lower anti-friction rollers sliding in the lower guide rails and the upper anti-friction rollers sliding in the upper guide rails, and only a vertical movement will be necessary to open the door and a corresponding downward movement to close it.

For the purpose of counter-balancing the door, I prefer to provide sheaves 12 above the door opening and cables 13 passing over said sheaves and connected at one end to the door and at the other end to counterbalance weights 14. The intermediate portion of the track is curved in the angle formed by the Wall of the building and the ceiling substantially on the arc of a circle, so that when the door is raised, the upper antifriction rollers 6 will follow this curved track from the vertical portion of the rails to the horizontal portion thereof, the door itself assuming the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. l as it is moved from its closed to its open position. The door being nicely counterbalanced, can be easily opened from the inside or the outside of the building, as desired, and may, of course, when closed, be provided with a suitable lock which I have not thought necessary to illustrate herein, the essential feature of the invention being the arrangement of the track or guide-way which causes the door to be braced or drawn snugly to its seat on the door frame with a single vertical movement.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination, with a door frame having a door seat thereon, of guides provided upon the opposite sides of said door frame and comprising upper and lower sections, Said upper sections being upwardly and inwardly inclined, said lower sections being substantially vertical and adjacent said frame, the lower ends of said upper and lower sections being at an acute angle to said door seat and terminating near said seat, whereby said door, in closing, will move outwardly when near the limit of its downward movement and be wedged in said guldes against its seat.

2. The combination, with a door frame having a door seat thereon, of door guides arranged upon the opposite sides of said door frame and comprising upper and lower sections, a door having bearings at the top and bottom in said sections respectively, said sections having means for engaging said bearings when the door is nearly closed and forcing it with a wedging eiect against its seat.

3. The combination, with a door frame having a door seat thereon, of upright cliinnel bar guides provided upon opposite s1des of said door frame and composed of upper and lower sections, said upper sections depending near the top of the door opening and extending upwardly and inwardly therefrom and said lower sections having their upper ends oiset from the adjacent ends of the upper sections and. depending vertically near said door seat, and the lower ends of said lower sections being outwardly turned, a door having bearings in said sections to slide therein, the lower portions of said guides directing said door outwardly to its seat and wedging it thereon.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of December, 1916.

FREDERICK KEES. 

